CHAPTER 2

SOCIAL REFORM AND DEVELOPMENT

 

V. Priority Sectoral Activities

A. Health, Nutrition and Population

1. Transforming the health care delivery system into one that is more dynamic, efficient, effective and responsive to devolution by :

a. Focusing efforts on the prevention and control of leading communicable, non-communicable and lifestyle-related diseases as well as conditions arising from environmental and occupational hazards.

Specific Activities:

  •  Install mechanisms to effectively and efficiently respond to recurrent and newly emerging diseases (e.g., investing in new programs to address emerging health problems);

  • Undertake health risk assessment to prevent environmental hazards to public health; and

  • Develop mechanisms for assessment and regulation of technological innovations.

b. Enhance support capabilities for devolved set-up.

Specific Activities:

  • Streamline the DOH central office and set up partnership arrangement with LGUs;

  • Strengthen Regional Field Offices (RFOs) through decentralization of resources, both human and financial, to enable them to provide adequate and timely logistics for the poor, marginalized and underserved segments of the society;

  • Sustain and strengthen HRD programs to enhance and maintain adequate and stable supply of qualified, competent and motivated personnel;

  • Assess, monitor and evaluate program implementation and facility operation;

  • Conduct health surveys, researches and field studies for evidence-based formulation of health policies and development of measures/strategies; and

  • Promote community-based and home-based approaches to health care using local resources.

c. Develop the Health Facilities Program.

Specific Activities:

  • Upgrade hospitals in the periphery, especially devolved district and provincial hospitals;

  • Create more responsive and dynamic Centers of Wellness for health promotion and service delivery;

  • Establish and operationalize units/centers and other facilities to prevent and control occupation and lifestyle related problems including medical conditions brought about by disasters; and

  • Upgrade devolved hospitals and staff capability through establishment of rehabilitation units and continuous education/training, respectively, for quality medical care.

d. Increasing people/community participation in health and nutrition activities and decision-making and sustaining people's health awareness.

Specific Activity

  •  Intensify advocacy, social mobilization, linkages, and other modes of information campaign to enhance commitment and support of local leaders.

2. Improving health care financing.

Specific Activities:

  • Expand scope and coverage in terms of population and benefits of NHIP;

  • Increase the role of NHIP in financing health care expenditures;

  • Strengthen management and organizational structure, particularly the information system required in managing an expanded NHIP;

  • Support community health financing schemes and encourage employer financing for health care;

  • Develop/evaluate collaborative schemes involving other social health insurance(e.g., allowing public hospitals to collect, retain and allocate revenue from socialized user fees); and

  • Improve revenue-generating capacity of LGUs from external sources.

3. Enhancing the capacities on standards development, regulations and licensing.

Specific Activities:

  • Identify gaps in health regulations in terms of human resources health facilities and services (e.g., hospitals, laboratories, clinics, etc.) and health products and devices (e.g., drugs, cosmetics, medical equipment, etc.);

  • Institutionalize a mechanism for assessment and regulation of development projects or activities, as well as technological innovations that affect health;

  • Strengthen and upgrade standard-setting/regulation and enforcement for licensure of hospitals and other health facilities;

  • Strengthen pharmaceutical outlets in all public hospitals;

  • Establish mini-BFAD laboratories in Visayas (Cebu) and Mindanao (Davao); and

  • Augment regional regulatory staff.

4. Promoting traditional and alternative health care and their integration in our National Health Care Delivery system as mandated by RA 8423 "Establishing the Philippine Institute for Traditional and Alternative Health Care".

Specific Activities:

  • Conduct scientific research on Philippine herbal medicines and alternative health practices and their application in producing viable health products and services;

  • Promote scientifically-validated Philippine herbal medicines and alternative health practices, both locally and internationally;

  • Enhance health skills of medical professionals through training programs and postgraduate courses in alternative medicine to make them more competent and competitive;

  • Formulate standards, guidelines and codes of ethical practice to uplift the image of alternative medicine to the same plane as allopathic/western/biomedicine;

  • Formulate policies with the help of other government agencies (e.g. BOI, DTI, IPO, DENR) to protect indigenous peoples' knowledge and intellectual property rights of Filipinos; and

  • Modernize pharmaceutical production capabilities of both government and private sector to develop a new Philippine industry.

5. Promoting greater and more effective coverage of national and local public health programs.

Specific Activity:

  • Increase spending for health promotion programs and preventive health care, subject to the test of fiscal sustainability, aand improved efficiency.

6. Increasing leverage for the formation and effective performance of Local Health Network (i.e., District Health Systems).

Specific Activities:

  • Establish a sustainable fund for upgrading local health facilities; and

  • Provide recognition/incentives for private sector participation in local health networks.

7. Implementing the nutrition action agenda.

Specific Activities:

  • Intensify efforts to address protein-energy malnutrition;

  • Intensify nutrition education and counseling;

  • Sustain efforts toward elimination of micronutrient deficiencies;

  • Complement direct nutrition programs with efforts to promote national and home food security and to reduce poverty;

  • Improve mechanisms for locating and identifying the nutritionally needy at the community level;

  • Strengthen capabilities of LGUs and community participation in nutrition program planning and management; and

  • Intensify advocacy with local chief executives, legislators, policymakers, private sector and other stakeholders to generate financial, administrative and legislative support for nutrition programs.

8. Attaining efficiency, effectiveness, simplicity, and economy in the various efforts to combat substance abuse.

Specific Activities:

  • Improve and strengthen operational capabilities of drug law enforcement agencies, continuous review and upgrading of drug regulatory and control mechanisms, strengthening and upgrading existing drug laws and implementing regulations;

  • Enhance the delivery of a multipronged drug abuse prevention and control program;

  • Empower the government and NGOs to establish and improve facilities for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug dependents; and

  • Operate and maintain an intensified management information system from all sources through the computerization of available data.

9. Integrating population variables, including migration and urbanization, into development policies, plans and programs at all levels.

Specific Activities:

  • Advocate for the integration of POPDEV factors in various programs and plans;

  • Provide technical assistance to LGUs in making their development plans and investment programs population sensitive;

  • Develop and install POPDEV indicators systems and/or database systems;

  • Conduct POPDEV related researches as well as monitoring and evaluating studies; and

  • Develop a national database for population.

10. Mobilizing resources for the Philippine Population Management Program (PPMP).

Specific Activities:

  • Advocate for the allocation of funds for responsible parenthood and family planning programs through partnership with the private commercial sector, NGOs and donor agencies;

  • Mobilize GOs and NGOs for the preparation of population investment plan; and

  • Develop population accounts.

11. Mainstreaming gender and development into PPMP components.

Specific Activities:

  • Promote gender equality and women empowerment through education, employment and organization;

  • Raise gender awareness through training and orientation with emphasis on the linkage of gender to population and development issues; and

  • Organize and mobilize women's organizations for population and development activities.

12. Assisting couples/parents to achieve their desired family size within the context of responsible parenthood, consistent with Article II, Section 12 and Article XV, Sections 1-2 of the Constitution.

Specific Activities:

  • Intensify provision of family planning services to address unmet needs of married couples and other continuing users;

  • Provide advocacy services for reproductive health, responsible parenthood and family planning; and

  • Provide services for infertile couples.

13. Ensuring that adolescents are provided with appropriate information, knowledge, education, and services on population and reproductive health.

Specific Activities:

  • Provide information to the youth through multimedia campaigns, materials development, and advocacy activities; and

  • Support projects on adolescent health and youth development.

14. Promoting population-sensitive environmental management of human settlements.

Specific Activities:

  • Intensify advocacy among national and local officials to enhance understanding and consciousness on the impact of population on human settlements; and

  • Provide information and technical assistance to LGUs in planning and managing urban settlements.

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15. Expanding/strengthening policy and program consultations.

Specific Activities:

  • Create/maintain national and local mechanisms to facilitate regular consultations to resolve issues; and

  • Foster involvement of women, NGOs and other sectors in all phases of policy and program formulation and implementation.

B. Education and Manpower Development

Basic education

1. Expanding access to basic education

Specific Activities:

  • Prioritize services/outreach to underserved and marginalized groups or areas including Madaris and Indigenous Cultural Communities.

  • Explore and utilize viable alternative delivery schemes;

  • Undertake school/community-based planning;

  • Adopt effective fund mobilization schemes with various stakeholders;

  • Optimize use of school/training facilities; and

  • Broaden stakeholder participation and strengthen advocacy and social mobilization.

2. Improving the quality and relevance of basic education

Specific Activities:

  • Promote learner-centered development;

  • Measure educational outcomes more comprehensively and frequently using socially sensitive and more varied types of assessment instruments;

  • Accelerate the improvement of teacher competence by upgrading and expanding preservice training and inservice training;

  • Provide training for literacy facilitators;

  • Promote decentralized, demand-driven, and research-based INSET for teachers and administrators;

  • Promote effective incentives system, especially for those who are willing to serve in remote and hazardous areas;

  • Provide information-based decision/policy-making;

  • Enhance the accountability of the school to parents and the community;

  • Use more appropriate language of teaching to improve learning efficiency;

  • Enrich teacher education with strengthened career consciousness and guidance and counseling for students;

  • Develop needs-based learning materials and other learning resources;

  • Accelerate special interventions in the upgrading of teaching in science and math; and

  • Formulate a Science and Technology Education Agenda for Development.

3. Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the system (central, region, division) and of the individual schools.

Specific Activities:

  • Realign the roles and functions of the different levels of the bureaucracy to support decentralization;

  • Modernize operations to enhance the delivery of educational services;

  • Strengthen partnerships with other stakeholders (i.e., relevant government agencies, LGUs, NGOs, businesses, parents, and community groups);

  • Expand the school/community-based planning and management scheme;

  • Adopt effective fund mobilization schemes; and

  • Utilize schools, training centers, and media channels as venues for service convergence and community consensus.

4. Institutionalizing early childhood care and development.

Specific Activities:

  •  Establish partnerships with relevant government agencies, LGUs, NGOs, and the private sector in the delivery of early childhood education;

  • Expand training of day care workers and preschool teachers; and

  • Strengthen monitoring and evaluation involving other stakeholders.

Middle-level skills development

1. Accelerating the delivery and implementation of flexible, market_oriented and user-driven technical-vocational education and training programs.

Specific Activities:

  • Implement the Unified TVET Program Registration and Accreditation System (UTPRAS);

  • Gradually implement the direct channeling of funding assistance to deserving students to raise their purchasing power in choosing programs and schools;

  • Identify and establish centers of excellence;

  • Upgrade physical facilities, equipment and instructional materials;

  • Intensify training in technology development, trainors' training and pre-service technician;

  • Adopt competency_based technical education and skills development system in all TVET institutions;

  • Establish and implement TVET Quality Awards;

  • Adopt and institutionalize technology benchmarking;

  • Develop alternative learning/delivery modes for community-based training;

  • Identify and document best practices for community-based training;

  • Integrate entrepreneurship development in TVET programs; and

  • Develop appropriate modules of community-based programs for the development of paraprofesionals.

2. Broadening the scope of and institutionalizing a system of recognition, accreditation and equivalency of work experience and prior learning.

Specific Activities:

  • Institutionalize and expand program areas for the TESDA Occupation Qualification and Certification System (TOQCS);

  • Formulate occupational standards and training regulations;

  • Develop curriculum and competency assessment instruments; and

  • Establish equivalency system within MLSD.

 

3. Promoting increased participation of the private sector in the financing, management and delivery of technical-vocational education and training.

Specific Activities:

  • Implement and expand the dual training system;

  • Develop alternative and flexible dual training system models;

  • Develop the capability of the private sector to manage and deliver MLSD programs; and

  • Provide appropriate incentives and other forms of assistance to the private sector in the management and delivery of TVET.

4. Supporting the middle-level manpower skills requirements of growth centers as well as the Strategic Agriculture and Fishery Development Zones (SAFDZs).

Specific Activities:

  • Implement education and training programs for critical middle-level skills requirements of priority sectors in identified growth areas; and

  • Implement the Agri-Fishery Development Program.

 

5. Widening the utilization of tested and cost-effective non-conventional/alternative learning strategies and delivery system.

Specific Activities:

  • Establish Virtual TVET Centers; and

  • Develop alternative distance learning modalities.

 

6. Improving access to tertiary education.

Specific Activities:

  • Implement and expand GASTPE; and

  • Provide adequate scholarship or assistance for poor but deserving students.

7. Improving resource allocation, efficiency of management, programs and institutions, planning and monitoring.

Specific Activities:

  • Formulate and integrate relevant technical education and skills development policies, plans and programs;

  • Establish mechanisms for efficient resource allocation based on the delineation across levels set by the trifocalization of the education sector;

  • Operationalize and expand a national manpower information system;

  • Institutionalize monitoring and evaluation systems; and

  • Develop staff and institutional capability in policy, planning, research and implementation.

 

Higher Education

1. Improving quality and attaining excellence in higher education.

Specific Activities:

  • Further strengthen Centers of Excellence (COEs) and Centers of Development (CODs) in nine clusters of disciplines;

  • Operationalize the National Higher Education Research Agenda (NHERA);

  • Strengthen research and extension functions of HEIs;

  • Implement the Mindanao Advanced Education Project (MAEP);

  • Establish the Quality Assurance System in Higher Education;

  • Strengthen science education in teacher education institutions; and

  • Upgrade the capability of HEIs' faculty and staff.

 

2. Improving relevance and responsiveness to regional and national development.

Specific Activities:

  • Implement the National Agriculture and Fisheries Education System (NAFES) as provided for in RA 8435 otherwise known as the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) of 1998;

  • Formulate the Medium-Term HRD Master Plan for Higher Education: 1999-2004; and

  • Improve the quality of higher education to international standards through:
    a. Development of institutional linkages and networking programs between and among local and international institutions of higher learning;
    b. Establishment of the Philippines as an education hub in the Asia-Pacific region; and
    c. Improvement of maritime education curricula to meet international standards, particularly the STCW'95, with the creation of a world-class maritime institution.

3. Increasing access and equity.

Specific Activities:

  • Develop innovative programs in higher education and modes of delivery of educational services;

  • Operationalize the ETEEAP in other priority professional areas; and

  • Expand access to educational opportunities in higher education through the implementation of various scholarship programs.

 

4. Ensuring efficiency and effectiveness of the system.

Specific Activities:

  • Rationalize the public higher education system; and

  • Operationalize the higher education management information system networking.

 

Culture, arts and media

1. Strengthening local culture and art.

Specific Activities:

  • Activate coordinating and local structures;

  • Develop cultural and media programs that directly target families as basic units for evolving positive and national ideology;

  • Develop a strong working national language within the context of multilingualism and multiculturalism;

  • Undertake research on indigenous culture;

  • Utilize various media channels such as electronics and indigenous media;

  • Develop protective mechanisms to prepare the citizenry to be more intelligent and discriminating consumers of various forms of mass media; and

  • Enhance access to and development of mass-based sports in schools and communities.

2. Constructing a theater for the performing arts in Cebu City that is suitable for the theater, dance and orchestral music and with adequate backstage facilities, rehearsal rooms and storage.

3. Completing the National Museum of the Filipino People and providing appropriate homes for the envisioned National Museum of the Arts and the National Museum of Nature.

4. Restoring certain old archives to provide permanent homes for records and management and archiving activities.

5. Expanding regional and provincial libraries as a means of making knowledge accessible to the countryside and to the poor.

6. Assisting the cultural communities in documenting and preserving their arts, rituals and culture and in making the greater Filipino public more appreciative of their cultural heritage.

7. Establishing schools of traditional lifestyles in various cultural communities in the country.

8. Implementing a program for the restoration and use of historically and architecturally important buildings owned by the national government, local government units and GOCCs including state universities and colleges.

9. Accelerating a program for the restoration and maintenance of World Heritage Sites in the Philippines specifically the Banawe Rice Terraces, Tubbataha Reef, San Agustin Church and Convent, and the churches at Paoay in Ilocos Norte, Sta. Maria in Ilocos Sur, and Miag-ao in Iloilo, as well as the mestizo district of Vigan, Ilocos Sur.

C. Shelter and Urban Development

1. Focusing services on the poor.

Specific Activities:

  • Socialized Housing

Home Mortgage Finance

a. Settlement Development;

b. Community Mortgage Program;

c. Medium-Rise Buildings, Sites and Services, Completed Housing; and

d. Retail Lending.

Housing Assistance Fund

a. Subsidize market-priced loans under a multi-window Home Lending Program, CMP, Resettlement/other mortgage loans, as well as pilot rental schemes and mortgage insurance.

Guarantees

a. Retail Guarantees;

b. Development Guarantees; and

c. Abot-Kaya Pabahay Fund Cash Flow Guarantee.

  • Economic Housing

a. Retail Lending; and

b. Retail Guarantee.

2. Improving the public sector housing delivery system.

Specific Activities:

  • Housing finance reforms; and

  • Shelter system review and reengineering.

3. Decentralizing urban development and shelter delivery.

Specific Activities:

  • Update the National Urban Development and Housing Framework;

  • Capacity-building for local government units; and

  • Urban poor communities development.

 

D. Social Welfare and Community Development

1. Implementing programs and enforcing laws to protect the poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged.

Specific Activities:

  • Strengthen institutional support mechanisms;

  • Intensify advocacy activities and capability-building for the government, especially LGUs, and civil society; and

  • Improve the data base and information system to strengthen reporting and monitoring mechanisms, specifically baseline information on indigenous cultural communities and IPs.

2. Rescuing the disadvantaged and vulnerable groups from especially difficult circumstances and reintegrating them into the mainstream of society.

Specific Activities:

  • Strengthen delivery of social services with focus on preventive and pro-active approaches, e.g., early childhood care and development, family-focused type of interventions, and parent trainings;

  • Expand coverage of skills training and livelihood activities for vulnerable groups;

  • Expand coverage of social security to informal workers; and

  • Continue and intensify implementation of poverty reduction programs with emphasis on focused targeting and the convergence approach.

3. Increasing the participation of the poor and disadvantaged groups in decision-making and the development process.

Specific activities:

  • Expand implementation of activities that will inform and educate the poor and the disadvantaged of their rights and responsibilities in development; and

  • Intensify capacity-building and mobilization for community participation.

 

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